Lina Sarmiento

Lina C. Sarmiento is the former Director of the Directorate for Police Community Relations, the first woman to head a national support unit of the PNP. She is the second female Chief Superintendent of the Philippine National Police (PNP). She is the current head of the Human Rights Victims' Claims Board.

Sarmiento is the second Filipina policewoman to be conferred a rank equivalent to a one-star or brigadier general after Yolanda Tanigue became the PNP's first female police general in 2006. She was promoted to chief superintendent on 24 March 2009. She is the first female police officer to receive two stars.

She is married to Avelino Sarmiento, a businessman. They have four children: Mark Alvin, Matthew Allen, April Madeline, and Aileen Marie.

Career

At 21, she took and passed the exam for a forensic chemist's position at the Crime Laboratory of PNP. She thought she was just applying for a chemist position which turned out to be a position for police rank. When she finished the training after six months, she was already a policewoman.

She was erstwhile Director of the PNP Human Rights Affairs Office and the Police Security and Protection Group before she was assigned to her current position in the PNP Directorial Staff.

She was the first female police officer to receive two stars. PNP Director General Nicanor Bartolome, who also appointed her head of the PNP's Community Relations Group, conferred Sarmiento the rank of director. She is the PNP's first female 3rd level official to hold the rank of director. It is equivalent to that of a major general in the military.